15 Members and guests joined our online meeting to discuss the plans for our upcoming Panel Discussion on Apprenticeships and Skills, this will be on 27 March, in cooperation with the German Embassy, MakeUK and the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany.  Keynote speakers include our Patron, the German Ambassador, HE Miguel Berger, the Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Minister of State (Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education), Department for Education, Stephen Phipson, Chief Executive, MakeUK, Sir Michael Barber, Advisor to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Skills Reform Programme and Bob Shankly, HR Director, BMW Manufacturing (UK) Ltd (MINI).  An agenda will be sent out shortly.

Discussion with members highlighted the need to include vocational training for commercial and service skills, beyond the engineering-based emphasis driven by the manufacturing sector members. To address the future skills needs of the full range of German businesses in the UK across a multitude of sectors.

It was also agreed that the invitation for speakers would be extended to the German Office for International Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training (GOVET), to enable those present to learn more about the existing activities in the development of UK apprenticeships.

We are delighted Lord Johnson has accepted our invitation to discuss German business` challenges, highlighted in our recent survey on the Challenges Facing German Business in the UK with him.

Over 20 Members and colleagues, including the chief executives of ANT Telecommunications, BMW Hams Hall Motors, Brose, Efaflex, HARTING, Helaba Bank, OSRAM, Rösler, ZF Services UK along with a Counsellor from the German Embassy, the Head of Government Affairs of Volkswagen, the Real Estate and Facilities Manager of Boehringer Ingelheim and 3 members of the GIUK Advisory Council joined our online meeting to listen to our Guest, Ms Konstanze Scharring, Director of Policy and Government Affairs at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), who talked about the challenges with regard to the future of petrol, diesel and electric cars in the UK.  The challenges she mentioned for electric cars in particular were the charging infrastructure, UK/EU Trade & ROO, consumer costs (TCO/tax/energy) and supply chain decarbonisation.  This was followed by a deeper discussion into the dynamics behind each constraint and the comparison between the UK plans and initiatives and those of the EU Nations, in particular Germany.  This online meeting was chaired by our Chief Executive, Phil McClennon who extended the thanks of all participants to Ms Scharring for sharing her insight into the topic and the progress being made.

On October 26th, in response to interest from a number of GIUK members into the current applications of AI technology across sectors, we invited a number of member companies to present their applications and experiences of the technology.

Diego Lago, Product Manager of the SteelBuy materials trading platform presented their company's journey in establishing itself as a digital first platform within a legacy materials trading market.  Diego outlined the key principles they accounted for when creating the platform, to maximise customer appeal of the platform for both materials buyers and sellers and the continuous process of development and functionality improvement that represents their normal business, to increase the platforms utility to users.  He explained how insights were extracted from customer usage and feedback and how the SteelBuy team derived and coded new features in response to those data driven insights.  He went on to outline how the improvements made correlated directly to increased market penetration and customer retention over time as they continue their journey within the product roadmap and further enhance the value of the platform to customers with further insights from AI technologies such as machine learning.

Karsten Smet, CEO of ACI Group a B2B distributor of ingredients, products and raw materials into diverse customer markets, went deeper into the current maturity of applied AI technologies across sectors.  Having decades of experience in the application of AI technologies, Karsten was able to expand on a wide array of AI use cases and highlight the opportunities for businesses, the key inputs and risk points and the current limitations of the available AI tools.  He described the scale of the data sets needed to teach and test the AI models for specific use cases, and how the AI tools were then able to make intelligent interventions in examples like the healthcare market.  One specific highlight of Karsten's talk was how the technology was enabling healthcare professionals to extend the reach of their medical scanning and analysis to even the most remote parts of the world, where previously this had not been possible.

Both of the presentations were well received by 13 members present, who were able to correlate the examples given to their own businesses and market sectors.  The meeting has inspired discussion of further technology related topics of interest to GI-UK members, something that will help shape the agenda of future meetings for 2024.  The meeting was chaired by our Chief Executive Phil McClennon.

Michael Lewis is very experienced and knowledgeable, having worked in the energy industry for nearly 30 years.  Before becoming CEO of Eon UK in 2017 he worked for Eon Climate and Renewables GmbH and before that for Powergen, amongst others.  In July this year he became CEO of Uniper SE in Düsseldorf.  Uniper is an energy company active in 40 countries, in particular Germany, Sweden and the UK, employing 7,000 people.

We had a very rewarding second online meeting with Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt, Minister for Investment at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy chaired by Alex Smith, Managing Director of Volkswagen Group and a member of our board and look forward to a third meeting with Lord Grimstone later this year.  The Minister asked us to bring him up to date with our challenges post Brexit and with the pandemic and we had a very lively discussion with him with some 25 members and guests from the German automotive, engineering, pharmaceutical, transport, legal and financial services sectors, together with a representative from the German Embassy, joining in.  We were very grateful to the Minister, who is responsible for all foreign investment in the UK, for answering all our questions and appreciate that he wants to continue discussions with us.

We had a very interesting First GIUK Online `Teams` Meeting for members of 2022 with Rawdon Glover, Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover UK, chaired by Member of our Board, Richard Bushnell, Managing Director of OSRAM Limited with some 20 members and guests from the German automotive, engineering, pharmaceutical, transport and financial services sectors, together with a representative from the German Embassy, joining in.  Rawdon Glover gave us a very comprehensive overview of Jaguar Land Rover, with slides showing their current and future vehicles and emphasising in particular the electrification of cars and the lack of charging points that still exists.  This was followed by a very lively question and answer session with valuable contributions, amongst them from Dr Markus Grüneisl, Chief Executive Officer of BMW UK Manufacturing Ltd in Oxford (Mini).

We had a very good Second GIUK Online `Teams` Meeting for members of 2022 on Monday, 7th March from 14.00-15.00hrs with some 15 members taking part.  Amongst those present were the chief executives and senior colleagues of ANT Telecommunications, Balluff, BMW Manufacturing (MINI), Boehringer Ingelheim, Brose, Fuchs Lubricants, HARTING, Lufthansa, OSRAM, some members of our Advisory Council and the Head of the Economic Department of the German Embassy.  Firstly, Dr Atenstaedt, who chaired the meeting, mentioned our forthcoming events, our working meeting at Miele GB on 16th March, our 47th Anniversary Dinner Discussion in London on 19th May and a conference at Wilton Park from 4-6th July.  He then talked about lobbying Government and our present contacts with Steve Barclay MP, Alex Burghart MP, Maggie Throup MP, and James Cleverly MP.  Following this we discussed many of our current challenges like impact on salaries and wages due to the high inflation rate, impact on supply chains due to the Ukraine crisis, high turnover of key skilled employees and increased costs, paperwork and delays with our imports in to the UK post-Brexit.  This was a really lively discussion amongst colleagues.  We will aim to do more online meetings without guest speakers to allow for more discussion amongst colleagues.

We had a very good Third GIUK Online `Teams` Meeting for members of 2022 on Monday, 25th April from 14.00-14.45hrs with some 17 members taking part.  Amongst those present were the chief executives and senior colleagues of ACI Group, ANT Telecommunications, BMW Manufacturing (MINI), Boehringer Ingelheim, Brose, Fuchs Lubricants, HARTING, LTi Metalltech, OSRAM, TopRegal, Voith Turbo and also some members of our Advisory Council and a Counsellor from the German Embassy.  Firstly, Klaus Allion, MD of ANT Telecommunications, gave a short presentation on how we can work more closely together in future with sub-groups.  Afterwards we discussed many of our challenges like impact on salaries and wages due to the high inflation rate, high cost of living, the massive increase in energy costs, impact on supply chains, high turnover of key skilled employees and increased costs, paperwork and delays with our imports into the UK post-Brexit.  This was a really lively discussion amongst colleagues.  Following this, Dr Atenstaedt, who chaired the meeting, talked about lobbying Government and mentioned his contacts with the Rt Hon James Cleverly MP, new Minister for Europe, Lee Rowley MP, Minister for Industry, Alex Burghart MP, Minister for Skills and Maggie Throup MP, Minister for Vaccines and Public Health and last but not least Lord Grimstone, Minister for Investment, who may join us at our dinner discussion in London on 19 May to celebrate 47 years of GIUK.

We had a very rewarding Third VIP Online Meeting in 2022 yesterday with Mr Lee Rowley MP, Minister for Industry at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, chaired by our Executive President, Dr Bernd Atenstaedt.  Amongst those present were the chief executives, members of the board and heads of departments from ACI Group, ANT Telecommunications, Bahlsen, Bayer, BMW UK Manufacturing (MINI) and Swindon Pressings, Boehringer Ingelheim, Brose, BSH Home Appliances, Draeger Safety UK, Fuchs Lubricants UK, HARTING, Helaba Bank, Kärcher (UK), Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Lufthansa German Airlines, Porsche Cars Great Britain, Rösler UK, Sikla, Voith Turbo and Webasto Group, also some members of our Advisory Council and the Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the German Embassy.

The Minister talked about current and future legislation for the benefit of business.  That was followed by `questions and answers` and we discussed our challenges post-Brexit and the pandemic, also automation, codetermination, industrial strategy and skills amongst other topics.  The Minister was very enthusiastic throughout the meeting, kindly answered all our questions and offered to continue the discussion with us sometime soon.

We had a very rewarding Fourth GIUK Online Meeting for members of 2022 on Friday, 17th June 2022, 14:00-15.00 hrs with some 15 members and guests taking part.  Amongst those present were the chief executives and members of the board of ACI Group, ANT Telecommunications, BMW Manufacturing (MINI), Boehringer Ingelheim, Efaflex, Helaba Bank, LBBW Bank, OSRAM, Rösler, Sikla, a member of the GIUK Advisory Council and the Minister and Head of the Economic and Financial Affairs Department of the German Embassy.  This was the first online meeting for members which our new Chief Executive, Phil McClennon, chaired. 

To begin, Uday Bose (Managing Director of Boehringer Ingelheim and Member of the GIUK Board) shared an overview of the UK Government's plan to develop the UK Life Sciences Industry, together with insights into the key constraints which need to be overcome to realise that aim.  Phil McClennon then shared the context for the up-coming launch of the member discussion subgroups, together with the plans for the Automation/ Digitisation and Supply Chain, Import/Export groups which would be the first to begin.  The group then reflected on the recent positive discussion with the Minister for Industry, Lee Rowley MP, regarding the UK Government's plans to support manufacturing growth and our Executive President, Dr Bernd Atenstaedt, outlined the status of discussions with other Government Ministers and also talked about the proposed panel discussion on `Skills in the UK and Germany` in cooperation with MakeUK and the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany.

Our next online meeting will be announced soon and we will be using our new platform as introduced by Phil McClennon - www.whereby.com/gi-uk

We had an excellent Fourth VIP Online `Teams` Meeting of 2022 with our Patron, the new German Ambassador, HE Miguel Berger, with some 25 members and guests joining in. Our Executive President, Dr Bernd Atenstaedt, gave an overview of German business in the UK and our continued lobbying of Government on behalf of German business.  The German Ambassador then talked about further strengthening the good relations between the UK and Germany, more important than ever since the UK left the EU, but not Europe and a good relationship between the two vital countries in Europe is now more important than ever.  He also stressed that business and investment between the two countries needs to be further increased and he also emphasised that he will support our lobbying of Government.  We then had an overview of the automotive sector by Dr Markus Grüneisl, Chief Executive Officer, BMW UK Manufacturing Ltd (MINI) and Swindon Pressings Ltd, an overview of the healthcare sector by Uday Bose, Managing Director/Head HumanPharma UK & Ireland, Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd and Member of the GIUK Board, an overview of the transport sector by Henri Lange, Senior Director Sales Northern Europe, Lufthansa German Airlines and Member of the GIUK Board and an overview of the financial services sector by Heiner Boehmer, General Manager London Branch, Helaba Bank and Member of the GIUK Board.  After that, we had a very good discussion, with contributions from James Stephens, Vice President Corporate Affairs UK & Ireland, DHL International (UK) Ltd and Richard Bushnell, Managing Director, OSRAM Ltd.  Phil McClennon, our Chairman and Chief Executive, closed a very rewarding online meeting and we are now looking forward to a roundtable discussion with the Ambassador after the summer at his residence to take our discussion further.

On Thursday, 11 August, the new GIUK `Digitisation & Automation` Sub-group met for the first time, chaired by our Chief Executive, Phil McClennon, to discuss related topics of interest with members across the diverse sectors of German business in the UK.  The full scope of both topics was reviewed within each business present, and consensus formed around the key topics for ongoing information sharing and discussion.

Each of the businesses already had mature ERP systems in place and things like remote or hybrid workflows and communications were well established as normal business.

This high level of existing competence highlighted that advanced topics such as secure data handling and analytics was their core focus for further developments.  Future meetings will touch on specific elements of this topic with “deep dive” examples from member organisations.

There was also much experience in the group with digital communications for marketing and employee engagement.  The potential relevance of both to the entire GIUK membership community was noted, so further insights into this topic will be shared with the wider GIUK community.

Extending from these themes into the world of physical automation technology, the members highlighted an interest in learning more about the benefits of predictive analytics in relation to their physical operational processes.  Given this interest it was agreed that a specialist will be invited to a future meeting to give some deeper technical insights into the maturity and applications of this technology.

One additional topic raised in the discussions was the opportunity created by deeper integration of a business’ digital and physical automation data, so this theme will also be expanded in a future discussion.

Overall the Digital and Automation Sub-group launch meeting fully met its objectives in scoping out the key topics for future “deep dives” within the group.

Members of German business have expressed an interest in a deeper level of discussion to gain the benefit of cross-sector insights and experiences on the following four topics: Digitisation/Automation, Climate/Energy transformation, HR/Personnel/Apprenticeships and Supply Chain & Import / Export.

On Thursday, 20th October, the new GIUK `Supply Chain & Import / Export` Sub-group met for the first time, chaired by our Chief Executive, Phil McClennon, to discuss related topics of interest with members across the diverse sectors of German business in the UK. The full scope of both topics was reviewed within each business present, and consensus formed around the key topics for ongoing information sharing and discussion.

Each of the GIUK member businesses already had overcome the operational and administration changes associated with the UK leaving the EU and these are now well established as normal business.

Despite the significant progress made to reduce supply chain uncertainty for each business, significant constraints continue in areas of semi-conductor dependent component supply.

For consumer facing businesses this can force manufacturers and distributers to drive sales of lower specification products over cutting edge ones. For the B2B sectors, longer technical component delivery lead times often spreads customer spend over a longer period, impacting total annual sales figures.

Each of the GIUK member businesses had mitigated or adapted to these constraints so far as is practical but recognised the need for government to derive future UK economic development plans from the common lessons learned by UK business across a diverse array of sectors.

Given the progress made by member businesses on UK Import and Export operations, much of the member interest focussed on matters relating to the operational flow of goods and materials to and within the UK. Constraints in border logistics infrastructure and on industrial / warehousing space were considered and a direction defined to bring those topics to the attention of the relevant regional bodies was outlined. To complement GI-UK's established UK government lobbying activities.

It was also highlighted that the government's existing arrangements to foster the UK finance sector's global business growth were creating the expected opportunities for the UK teams of many international banks.

Overall the Supply Chain & Import / Export Sub-group launch meeting fully met its objectives in scoping out the key topics for future “deep dives” within the group.

Dinner Discussion with our Patron, Guest of Honour and Speaker, HE Miguel Berger, German Ambassador to Court of St James`

We had a very rewarding Fifth GIUK Online Meeting for members of 2022 on Wednesday, 9th November, 2022, 16.00-16.40 hrs with some 15 members and guests taking part.  Amongst those present were senior executives of ACI Group, ANT Telecommunications, BMW Manufacturing (MINI), Boehringer Ingelheim, DHL, Fuchs Lubricants, Helaba Bank, Sikla, TopRegal, members of the GIUK Advisory Council and the Head of the Economic and Financial Affairs Department of the German Embassy. 

The meeting was chaired by our Chief Executive, Phil McClennon who gave an update of recent and future online meetings for members.  This was followed by our Executive President, Dr Bernd Atenstaedt, who talked about our new Major GIUK Survey on the Current Challenges Facing German Business in the UK, highlighting the main comments.  A lively discussion followed.

Members of German business have formed the Digitisation and Automation sub-group to benefit from a deeper level of discussion of cross-sector insights and experiences on related topics.  On Thursday, 8th September, the GIUK second `Digitisation & Automation` Sub-group, chaired by our Chief Executive, Phil McClennon, met to review the business opportunities presented by the application of predictive analytic technologies in their operations.  Hosted by John Radford, former Managing Director of Balluff in Northern Europe and Americas, the main event was an expert "walk through" of the topic from Cliff Brereton, Managing Director of Datahone Ltd, a specialist in the area.  After a foreword from John, relating to how each of our personal and business lives is already touched by this technology.  Cliff's presentation opened with a broad overview of the sources of useful data that already exist within each business. He went on to explain how recent technology developments have opened the door to extract deeper insights than were achievable before with more manual efforts or earlier stage technologies.  He highlighted that current mature analytics have moved beyond the creation of causal diagnoses from data and were now able to define more specific, time bound action recommendations, to enable a pre-emptive approach to maintaining and improving the yield and outcomes within operations.  Drawing on a number of industrial manufacturing related use cases, Cliff explained how the impact of the results achieved benefitted from extending the data collection beyond the core of operations, right through to ancillary equipment and infrastructure. Very low-cost modern data collection sensors were also highlighted as an ideal means for drawing status data from even the most ancient, legacy equipment and facilities. In a brief summary of a few Datahone case studies, Cliff was also able to describe the magnitude of the outcomes achieved by their end user customers through application of the technology, in terms of cost, quality and throughput. To close, Cliff defined the typical IT/OT architecture behind predictive analytic systems and highlighted how the underpinning technology continues to advance, opening doors to further insights and opportunities over time.

The discussion that followed Cliff's presentation focussed in on a number of further sector applications beyond industrial manufacturing and how they currently benefit from application of the same core technology. Reference was also made to a number of UK Government sponsored centres of excellence such as the Hartree Centre, who work with UK businesses to apply these cutting-edge technologies to resolve the many data based and complex challenges surrounding UK businesses.

Overall, this second meeting of the Digitalisation and Automation subgroup fully met its objective of shining a light on the application of predictive analytics in business, and the members offered their sincere thanks to Cliff Brereton for his insights on the topic. The thanks were also extended to John Radford for sharing some of his own relatable insights and experiences on the topic as host to the meeting.

The GIUK Board and Advisory Council had a very successful Online Meeting with the German Ambassador to the UK, HE Andreas Michaelis, on Wednesday, 17 March and discussed the challenges facing German business with COVID19 and Post-Brexit with him. We also talked about relations between the UK and Germany, very important to the Ambassador, and we will continue to support him in his endeavour. The UK has left the EU but not Europe and relations between the two major countries, the UK and Germany, are just as vital now and for the future as before.

We had a very rewarding online meeting with Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt, Minister for Investment at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to discuss the challenges facing German business with COVID-19 and the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. However, as I have said on many occasions, we will not leave the UK, one of Germany`s most important locations and markets worldwide, and we look forward to a good future in the UK. We were very grateful to the Minister for answering all our questions and inviting us to another online meeting in few months to keep up to date.

We had a good online meeting on Wednesday, 28th April, from 2-2.50pm with some 15 members and the Minister from the German Embassy taking part.  Unfortunately Terry Sargeant, our Chairman and Chief Executive, could not join the meeting because he had an online meeting with his board in Germany so Dr Atenstaedt, our President, chaired it.

He talked about our online meeting with Lord Grimstone on 14 April which was very rewarding and that the Minister asked for another online meeting with us in a few months.  He has in the meantime established a new Investment Council to advise him on foreign investment into the UK.  We welcome that the chief executives of four German companies are on the Council, Deutsche Post DHL, RWE Renewables, Airbus UK and Siemens UK. 

Dr Atenstaedt also mentioned that he has invited the Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, as a possible next speaker from Government and Terry Sargeant is going to ask a chief executive of a British company for another online meeting.

Finally, Dr Atenstaedt gave an overview of our `New Survey Amongst German Business in the UK: Many Post-Brexit Challenges`, the results of which we sent out last week to all 35 companies who took part, this is now on our website and was mentioned on LinkedIn.

We had a good fourth GIUK online meeting on Thursday, 10th June, from 2-2.45pm with some 17 members taking part, the chief executives of ANT Telecommunications, Atlas Elektronik, B Braun Medical, Boehringer Ingelheim, Efaflex, Fuchs Lubricants, HARTING, Helaba, Heller Machine Tools, Miele, Noerr, Rohde & Schwarz, Voith, Webasto and two members of our Advisory Council.  Unfortunately Terry could not join the meeting because of technical issues so I chaired it.

We had two speakers, Dr Antoni Mazur, MD of Atlas Elektronik UK and Mr Klaus Allion, MD of ANT Telecommunications who both spoke about the challenges their companies are currently facing.

I then mentioned that I have written to the Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Transport about Germany coming off the UK Amber List for business, to the Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury asking for an online meeting with us and I have contacted Dr John Neill, Chairman of Unipart, also inviting him to speak at one of our online meetings.  Lastly, I mentioned that Terry and I agreed to again meet for dinner discussions etc at the Royal Over-Seas Club in London as from the autumn, when hopefully the COVID restrictions are lifted.

Some 10 Members of the GIUK Board and Advisory Council had an online `Teams` meeting with Oliver Schramm, Minister at the German Embassy and Head of their Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Global Issues, yesterday morning as he will be leaving London next month.  We said farewell, thanked him for his great support of GIUK over the last 4 years, and wished him well in his new post as German Consul General in San Francisco, USA.

We had a very good Fifth GIUK Online Meeting last Thursday, chaired by myself as Terry was not able to join the meeting, with some 12 of our colleagues taking part, including Mr Julian Frohnecke, a Counsellor from the German Embassy.

Our speaker, Mr Armin Brestrich, General Manager of LBBW London Branch and Regional Head EMEA, gave an extensive and interesting presentation on how Brexit and COVID has affected the financial services in the UK.  This was followed by a discussion, in particular on how much the `pingdemic` is effecting our businesses.

We are very pleased to have been invited to a second online meeting with Lord Grimstone and this time we will also invite all our members to join, not only the members of our Board and Advisory Council as we did for our first online meeting with him on 14 April.  The Minister wants us to tell him how we are doing post-Brexit, in particular on Northern Ireland, with the pandemic and the `pingdemic`.  Just to emphasise, Lord Grimstone is responsible for all foreign investment in the UK.

Some 20 of our members joined our Sixth GIUK Online Meeting in 2021 to discuss the current challenges in British German trade. 

Our guest speaker was Rafe Courage, Country Director for the Department for International Trade in Germany and HM Consul General in Dusseldorf.  He gave a very comprehensive overview of the close political, economic and cultural relations between the UK and Germany today, mentioning in particular a recent cooperation agreement between the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Greater Manchester.  We also had a contribution from Julian Frohnecke, Counsellor in the German Embassy in London.  This was followed by a discussion on our challenges post-Brexit and with Covid and the recent decline of exports from Germany to the UK.  The UK was the third most important destination before Brexit, it went down to ninth last year and is expected to be destination number eleven by the end of this year.  We also talked about the NI Protocol and about skills following the PMs speech the day before in Manchester, who wants a high wage, high skilled and high productive UK for the future.  Dr Atenstaedt mentioned that aspects of the German Dual Vocational Training Scheme would help to upskill the UK which he has already discussed with a number of Ministers in London.

We had a very good dinner discussion on 20 October in London with the Rt Hon Greg Hands MP, Minister of State for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change. This dinner discussion had to unfortunately be postponed from last year due to the pandemic. The Minister talked about the way forward towards a Green UK and cooperation between the UK and Germany in energy, particularly in off-shore wind and increasingly in hydrogen and on climate change, sharing a common agenda in the run-in to COP 26 and beyond.
We were very pleased that our Patron, the German Ambassador, HE Andreas Michaelis, was also present.

Mr Graham Stuart MP, Minister for Exports (formerly Minister for Investment) at the Department for International Trade to talk about post Brexit transition, productivity and skills - This event is for GIUK Board and Advisory Council Members only

Postponed from 31 March and 9 July and also now unfortunately 22 October due to Coronavirus and with new Minister - Dinner Discussion with the Rt Hon Greg Hands MP, Minister of State at the Department for International Trade to discuss Relations between the UK and Germany after Brexits

This is our 3rd VIP Dinner Discussion on Brexit after the Dinner Discussion with the Brexit Minister Mr Robin Walker MP in September last year and Sir Keir Starmer KCB QC MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU in March this year, so after the Conservatives and Labour we are now talking to the Liberal Democrats about the way forward.

Our Chairman and Chief Executive, together with other Members of the GIUK Board and Advisory Council, had a Roundtable Discussion with HE Dr Peter Wittig, German Ambassador. They discussed the challenges German business faces in the UK today, mainly Brexit, productivity and skills.

with Guest of Honour and Speaker Federal Minister Peter Altmaier MdB, Chief of the German Federal Chancellery (Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes, Bundesminister f?r besondere Aufgaben)who will speak on `Germany and the UK: Common Interests and Joint Challenges`